CHAPTER XI 



The dchKt in Leicestershire — Frank Rahy hunts with tlie Quorn under Lord 

 Sefton, with Lord Lonsdale's, and with the Duke of Rutland's hounds. 



The fixture for the Quorn hounds, then lately become the 

 property of Lord Sefton, being very distant from Leicester, 

 Frank Raby had a day to dispose of, and occupied it in a visit 

 to Quorn, for the purpose of looking over the establishment, 

 and much as his expectations had been excited, the reality 

 very much exceeded them. He found more than sixty couples 

 of working hounds in the kennel, exclusive of the pack that 

 day in the field, and they were shown to him by John Raven, 

 one of his Lordship's huntsmen — Stephen Goodall, the other 

 liuntsman, being at work on that day. Then, in one stable he 

 saw twenty-eight hunters, all in the finest condition, the build- 

 ing being so contrived that each horse could be seen from his 

 liead to his tail by a person standing in the centre of it. In the 

 boxes, he saw some of his Lordship's best horses — Plato, Row- 

 land, and Gooseberry amongst them, which cost little less than 

 1000 guineas apiece — and they excited his admiration, not 

 only by their high form, but by their condition, which equalled 

 everything that Mr. Somerby had told him of it during his visit 

 to Amstead, and to which we have already alluded. They were 

 shown to him b}' Mr. Potter, his Lordship's head groom, who 

 told him that ' every gentleman's hunters might be in as good 

 condition as Lord Sefton's were, provided the}^ were similarly 

 treated, and not turned out to grass in the summer.' 



There being no one about the house but servants, Frank 

 Raby ventured to walk through the grounds of Quorndon Hall 

 (for such is the name of this celebrated hunting-box), cele- 

 brated as having been the property and residence of Mr. Mey- 

 nell, and purchased of him by Lord Sefton — and found it 

 exactly what Mr. Somerby had represented it to be ; namely, 

 a complete residence for a sportsman, aftbrding all necessary 



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